Small government is beautiful - discuss
Does a smaller Government sector mean more economic growth?
This example of normative economics from The Centre For Policy Studies offers a case that it does.
The CPS is trying to convince you and me, that smaller government leads to lower taxes, less crowding out, more enterprise amongst other outcomes. It is trying to shape decisions about the mixed economy, or change the behaviour of governments and voters.
It might provide some food for thought about what sort of mix of private and public sector is desirable. If you wanted to weigh up the case for more intervention, what would you highlight? Does the data used show that the relationship between government size is based on correlation or coincidence?
An Economists Guide to Teaching Styles
Many thanks to Paul Bridges for this witty and revealing interpretation of teaching styles - I am sure our student and teaching community can suggest additional styles and we will happily showcase the best! Over to you!
read more...»Oxbridge Economics: Introduction to Game Theory
Here is an “Introduction to Game Theory” lecture, which offers a broad introduction to the field, with some exercises to do at the end. (The yellow-underlined text hyperlinks out to other resources).
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Migration and the UK Economy
A revision blog on the economic impact of migration on the UK economy
read more...»Unit 2 Macro: Positive and Negative Multiplier Effects
An initial change in aggregate demand can have a much greater final impact on equilibrium national income. This is known as the multiplier effect. It comes about because injections of new demand for goods and services into the circular flow of income can stimulate further rounds of spending – in other words “one person’s spending is another’s income”. Put another way, spending becomes someone else’s income. This can lead to a bigger eventual effect on output and employment.
read more...»tutor2u Visit to the Middle East - April 2013
We have been invited by several colleagues to organise a visit to the Middle East in April 2013 to provide a programme of CPD and student revision workshops. As part of our planning, we’d like to invite colleagues in the area to let us have their thoughts on the content of the programme. Please use this online survey to have your input into the tour planning!
https://tutor2u.wufoo.com/forms/2013-uae-qatar-programme/
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Presentation on the Price Mechanism
Here is a slide share presentation on the price mechanism in action focused in students taking their AS microeconomics papers.
read more...»Improving Evaluation Skills in Economics Exams
Here is an updated version of the WEESTEPS approach to economics evaluation designed to boost the evaluation scores and exam results for AS and A2 students. Paul Bridges is the mastermind behind this superb approach to evaluation - it gives you some great pointers about the evaluative approaches that can be used. Works well for micro and macro - but particularly when you have to evaluate a specific policy intervention in a market / industry / or a macro policy discussion.
read more...»Jonathan Portes to speak at the Economics Teacher National Conference 2012
https://tutor2u.wufoo.com/forms/economics-teacher-national-conf-2012-booking-form/
We are delighted that Jonathan Portes will be one of our key note speakers at the Economics Teacher National Conference at the British Library on Wednesday 27th June.
In recent months Jonathan has been a prominent figure in the media commentating on a wide range of macroeconomic issues but notably on the lively debate about how best
to drive economic growth and recovery in the UK.
He is currently Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and previously, he was Chief Economist at the Cabinet Office, where he advised the Cabinet Secretary, Gus
O’Donnell, and Number 10 Downing Street on economic and financial issues. Before that he held a number of other senior economic policy posts in the UK government. Jonathan writes a blog “Not the Treasury View” that has fast-gained a large following within the economics community and much wider afield. Jonathan is also a prolific user of Twitter!
We are delighted that one of the UK’s top economists will be joining us for a pre-lunch presentation and open floor discussion.
Delegate Rates:
£175 (+ VAT) for a single delegate
£125 (+ VAT) for groups of two or more delegates from the same institution
https://tutor2u.wufoo.com/forms/economics-teacher-national-conf-2012-booking-form/
Unit 4 Macro: African Human Development Report 2012
May 15th 2012 marks the day when the African Human Development Report 2012 is published. This will no doubt become a key reference point for students and teachers who are passionate about their development economics.
“Sub-Saharan Africa cannot sustain its present economic resurgence unless it eliminates the hunger that affects nearly a quarter of its people, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) argues. More than one in four Africans - close to 218 million people - is undernourished, African governments spend between 5-10% of their budgets on agriculture, well below the 20% average that Asian governments devoted to the sector during the green revolution there.”
Resources:
African Human Development Report 2012
Guardian: Sub-Saharan Africa can only grow if it solves hunger crisis – UNDP
read more...»econoMAX May 2012
The latest edition of econoMAX (May 2012) is now available to download. The new articles and case studies are summarised below:
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Revision Blogs on Markets and Intervention
Here is a selection of a recent blog resources on topics that appear on the core Unit 1 Syllabus focusing on changing market prices and examples of interventions to address perceived market failures
read more...»Fact or Forfeit!
It’s the year 13’s last ever day at school today so I thought it was time to come up with a new idea for a game. Read on to find out how to play ‘fact or forfeit’...
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Minimum Wages and Living Wages
The campaign for a living wage has gained renewed prominence in the last year or so. Students and teachers wanting to know more about the minimum and the living wage debate might find this background blog from Channel 4 news relevant and useful. More here on the living wage from the Citizens UK web page.
UK Economy Update - AS/A2 Econ Evaluation Special
Geoff and the team are holding an online revision clinic for an hour on Tuesday 8 May (9pm here on this blog entry) for AS & A2 Econ students who would like to refresh their understanding of the key recent developments in the UK economy. The focus will very much be on helping students build their confidence to evaluate issues and potential policy options for the UK economy.
read more...»Exam Technique for Economics - Weesteps to Evaluation
With AS and A2 modules on the horizon, here is a presentation outlines an approach to demonstrating evaluation using the WEESTEPS acronym - first developed by Paul Bridges and his students who is now Head of Economics at the RGS Guildford.
It is an approach that has struck a chord with us all during our Economics revision workshops. The presentation uses a macro topic to illustrate the approach… but WEESTEPS can be used for all evaluation-style questions especially those focusing on different forms of government intervention in markets.
read more...»Teaching Vacancy - Economics & Business Studies at Rainham Mark Grammar School
These economics and business teaching vacancies just keep on coming! Here’s another really good one - with the chance to join the team at Rainham Mark Grammar School. More details below.
read more...»Teaching Vacancy - Economics at Merchant Taylors’ School.
Another fantastic teaching opportunity here - lots coming at once! Many thanks to Andrew Ellams for sending me the details - bound to be of interest to many of you!
read more...»Teaching Vacancy - Greenhead College
We’re seeing increasing evidence of A Level Economics student numbers going through the roof this year and it looks like the superb department at Greenhead College is no exception! tutor2u presenter Mark Mitchell has just sent me details of a new economics vacancy at Greenhead (see pdf link below) where the team are putting on 7 groups of AS - that’s nearly 160 students just for AS! Fantastic news.
http://www.greenhead.ac.uk/vacancies/posts/economics.pdf
Teaching Vacancy - Economics at Oundle School
For September 2012 Oundle are looking for an enthusiastic graduate teacher of Economics who has a real passion for the subject to become part of a friendly team (packed full of tutor2u bloggers and presenters!), to provide maternity cover for two terms – September 2012 through to March 2013….
read more...»Teaching Vacancy - Economics & Business at Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School
Many thanks to the team at Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School for letting us know about this new teaching opportunity which I’m sure will be of interest to many tutor2u teacher users. Details below
read more...»Teaching Vacancy - Economics Tutor at Farnborough Sixth Form College
An excellent opportunity here to join the Economics teaching team at The Sixth Form College, Farnborough. The college enjoys a national reputation for excellence. The link to the college website is provided below. Farnborough SFC is an ‘Outstanding’ department of 8 teachers with just under 500 A-level economists!. Great emphasis is placed on developing an engagement with economics beyond the confines of the specification. A wide range of extra curricular opportunities are provided. Farnborough were The Target 2.0 National Champions in 2011.
Full details of the vacancy here. Don’t forget to mention you saw it first on tutor2u!
Robert Schiller - Finance and the Good Society
Professor Robert Schiller from Yale University spoke at the RSA in London tonight on the roles and responsibilities of the financial sector and built an argument that finance can be a root to addressing some of the toughest economic and social challenges of the age. Here are some brief notes from his talk.
read more...»Summer CPD for Economics Depts: AS Essential Economics (20 June 2012)
We’re pleased to announce a new CPD course for A Level Economics teachers which will run on 20 June 2012 in Central London. tutor2u bloggers and workshop presenters Ruth Tarrant and Paul Bridges will lead the course which will provide a superb boost for colleagues who are new to teaching Economics or wish to extend or refresh their current approach to AS Economics.
Places on the course are available at just £175 (+VAT) and can be booked online here:
https://tutor2u.wufoo.com/forms/essential-as-a2-economics-cpd-course/
We are also running an Essential Economics course for A2 Economics - details here
read more...»Unit 1 Micro: Using the Cost-Benefit Principle
The cost-benefit principle is one of those core ideas that can be brought into so many evaluation discussions both in micro and macroeconomics – you should be using it in your papers!
read more...»Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context
I always ask of my students that they try to put policy issues and decisions into context. The effective use of context - either in a domestic or external setting or using recent history as a guide can greatly improve evaluation marks in exam essays. Our aim in a revision session today was to build some of that context with respect to some of the key issues facing the UK economy.
A starting point was the short and medium-term impact of the recession and how this is shaping the strength and pattern of recovery as we head through 2011 and into 2012. As befits an open economy heavily integrated into the European and global economic and financial system, many key recent developments on growth, jobs, inflation and trade are impacted by external demand and supply-side shocks and headwinds.
read more...»A2 Micro (Unit 3) Economics Online Revision Clinic - 10 June 2012
Students taking a Unit 3 exam as part of their A2 Economics this June may wish to get involved in our online revision clinic, which takes place a couple of days before the exam. The free online revision clinic will begin at 9.00 p.m. and last for an hour. Our Economics teacher panelists will be on hand to provide guidance and advice on key topics in A2 business economics (including labour market & transport economics) to help students focus their final revision efforts. To participate (e.g. ask questions or provide comments on topics discussed), students will need to login using their FB, Twitter or OpenID accounts.
read more...»AS Macro (Unit 2) Economics Online Revision Clinic - Monday 30 April
The second in our series of online revision clinics for A Level Economics will take place on Monday 30 April 2012 at 9pm (UK BST). The focus of this free one-hour revision clinic will be the Unit 2 exam on macroeconomics, covering AQA, Edexcel, WJEC and OCR topics. Students who wish to get live support from our Economics team will be able to login to the clinic on this blog entry; please use your FB, Twitter or OpenID details to login.
read more...»Tullow Oil and African Development
Yesterday I spent a fascinating evening in the company of Aidan Heavey, Founder and CEO of Tullow Oil plc, Africa’s leading independent oil exploration business and the top performer among FTSE-100 listed businesses on the UK stock exchange. It has approximately 100 production and exploration licenses in 22 countries.
read more...»Unit 3 Micro: The Third Industrial Revolution
This is well worth watching! It is an 8 minute discussion from the Economist which examines what is being called “The Third Industrial Revolution” - based around the digitisation of manufacturing processes. Concepts such as 3d printing and advanced robotics are discussed, as are concepts such as competitiveness, productivity and product personalisation. One possible consequence of these changes might be that high quality manufacturing may begin to move back from lower-wage economies such as China and back to economies like the USA.
read more...»
